Fifty Year Road’ is one of those very well written autobiographies, where Bhaskar Roy, a Delhi based journalist-writer, has deftly webbed and inter-webbed, political and also the not-so-political realities he witnessed and observed and experienced, right from the mid-60s, when he was young boy. There’s that great flow and with that the narration just flows along, along the dastangoi /story telling format. A book review by Humra Quraishi
BOOK REVIEW : Title of the book – FIFTY YEAR ROAD
Author – Bhaskar Roy , Publisher – Jaico Publishing House
Pages – 295 , Price-Rs 599
Book Review by – Humra Quraishi
The Delhi based journalist-writer, Bhaskar Roy, comes across as a quiet, soft-spoken person who doesn’t flaunt his knowledge of the ground realities of the recent and the not-so recent major happenings or turning points in the history of the country. But as one reads his recently launched memoir – ‘Fifty Year Road’ – one realizes how very observant he’s been. One is left impressed by his in-depth detailing and the also by the informal way of putting together all the significant aspects to those major turns together with the backgrounders.
It’s one of those very well written autobiographies, where Roy has deftly webbed and inter-webbed, political and also the not- so-political realities he witnessed and observed and experienced, right from the mid-60s, when he was young boy…I simply loved the way he starts his autobiography by focusing on his mother and her personality. Bringing to the fore the fact that his mother played a significant role in building his personality, introducing him to the significant personalities of Bengal, of the mid-60s…There’s that offbeat touch to the way Roy has put together details to his meetings and interactions with the various prominent personalities and also the ordinary characters. There’s that great flow and with that the narration just flows along, along the dastangoi /story telling format.
To quote Paul Pickering , the London-based academic and poet, from the Foreword he has written to this book – “The writer and editor Bhaskar Roy’s book is so refreshing because he looks at the events after Independence in his own life, his intimate family relationships, that map out a strange and bewitching world that is not chained to the past, but in which that past jumps through the future, on every page. This is a country where a journey to the moon or a twenty-trillion-dollar economy by 2040 is talked of one minute, and the TV shows minority women being paraded through the streets next and gangraped. Bhaskar Roy knows this country and its fatal contradictions as the difficult birth of a superpower does not leave the killings and violence behind with Partition…”
Space constraints come in way of detailing much more from this autobiography but one aspect cannot be overlooked: Roy sure does show the way how events and happenings ought to be documented. Also, how autobiographies ought to be written! This book ought to be introduced to students of Journalism and Media Studies and perhaps also to upcoming writers.
